South Africa v Australia ODI series – Combined XI

South Africa was chasing history when they came out to meet Australia in the fifth and the final ODI of the bilateral series. The series was a lop-sided one but the Australians still had a lot to look forward. There were staring at humiliation and it was Steven Smith’s last chance to salvage some pride. But, the home side once again superior proved to be superior and Australia despite all their effort had to kneel down and surrender.

Rille Rossow’s sparkling century saw South Africa set another challenging total in front of the visitors. Australia, in response, underperformed just like they had been doing in the previous game and fell short of the target which would have been achievable had David Warner, who struck his second highest ODi score of 173, received some support from the other end. The Australian were running out of luck as David Warner was running out of partners. Australia cricket team has faced a bit of harsh treatment in the past couple of months. They are not used to be at the receiving end of such situations.

The series saw splendid individual performances from both the sides. Quinton de Kock’s fiery century in the series opener, Skipper knock from Smith and Faf du Plessis. Warner fighting spirit, Imran Tahir’s spin bowling are some of the performances which defined the series. These individual performances cannot be forgotten in near future. And, it will quite fantastic to pick the outstanding performers from both the sides and combine them to form a best Combined XI of the series.

1. David Warner:

David Warner was the top performer among both teams and ended as the highest run-getter of the series scoring 386 runs in five matches at an average of 77.20. This tally also includes fabulous knocks of 117 in the 3rd game and 173 in the final ODI apart from a half century.

Warner was quite unfortunate as both his centuries in the series end up in losing cause. But, efforts were applaudable. No other Aussies batsman could perform to the extent he did. He completely outshined his teammates. No one was even close to his overall figures (Steven Smith with 151 runs is seated at a distant second in the run-getters list for Australia).